[d@DCC] Good news, bad news

[Wallace J.McLean]

Good news, bad news from the Copyright Board of Canada.


1) In a March 29 decision, the Board decided that it couldn't grant an
"unlocatable copyright license" to the Pointe-à-Callière museum in
Montreal. Why not? Because, the board decided, the intended use of the
work in question was fair use, and therefore not an infringement of
copyright, and therefore not something for which the board was competent
to issue a license. No need to license something the Copyright Act already
legally permits you to do. In the words of the Board, "the application for
a licence is dismissed for the reasons that the contemplated use does not
need to be authorized by the holder of the copyright."

!

This has huge implications for museums, libraries, archives, and other
similar institutions.

The full text of the decision is at:

   http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/decisions/q29032004-b.pdf



2) Access Copyright has applied for a tariff in respect of educational
copying, for activities which, especially post-CCH v. LSUC in the Supreme
Court of Canada, should be considered fair dealing in the first place...
and thus none of Access Copyright's business to be tariffying. The
purposes to be covered, if this tariff is accepted, include:

"(a) educational (including testing and examination activities),
professional, research, archival, administrative and recreational activities;

(c) production of teacher implementation documents, correspondence school
and distance learning courses, curriculum documents, workshop packages,
provincial examinations and all other similar activities; and

(d) making a reasonable number of Copies for on-site consultation in a
Library or loan by a Library."

Access Copyright wants $12.00 per full-time student equivalent for this
copying activity. That's for Grade-School students, primary, elementary
and secondary.

To pay for Kindergartener's course packs, no doubt. Freeloading little
blighters.

"Won't someone think of the creators?!"

Prospective users or their representatives have until June 23, 2004 to
object to this blatant cash-grab. Who speaks for school teachers, school
boards, and most importantly, school children?

The proposed tariff is at:

  http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/tariffs/proposed/re24042004-b.pdf


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